Paul Klee's 139th Birthday

Influenced by movements such as cubism, surrealism, and expressionism, Paul Klee explored numerous styles to develop his own approach to art-making—both rigorous and childlike—which defies categorization.Today’s Doodle pays homage to his Rote Brücke (Red Bridge), a 1928 work that transforms the rooftops and arches of a European city into a pattern of shapes rendered in contrasting yet harmonious hues. As Klee wrote in his diary, in 1914: “Color and I are one… I am a painter.”

Born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland on this day in 1879, Klee was the son of a German music teacher and a Swiss singer. An accomplished violinist, Klee played in a symphony orchestra before dedicating himself  to becoming a painter. He brought a musical sense of rhythm to the visual arts.

Sketching landscapes and caricatures even in his early teens, Klee began keeping meticulous records of all his creations in 1911, whether panel paintings, works on paper, graphics, or sculptures. He studied dots, lines, planes, and forms observed from nature—whether from the fish tank he kept at home or the veins seen on leaves or the human body—applying his observations to a vast body of work.

Along with his neighbor, the famous Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, Klee was affiliated with an influential circle of artists known as Der Blaue Reiter, which lasted from 1911 to 1914. He went on to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany during the 1920s, and the Pedagogical Sketchbook he wrote for the benefit of his students is still used today.

Klee never stopped pushing his creativity forward, producing a large number of works every year. In the year 1939, near the end of his career, he completed a record 1,239 works. “Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror,” Klee wrote in his diary. “Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart.”

Happy Birthday, Paul Klee!

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